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From “Touchdown!” to “It’s outta here!” to “Goal!”, sportscasters have provided a soundtrack to a variety of sporting events on both television and radio for generations.

Now, the Audio Description Initiative is looking to take play-by-play to the next level for blind and visually impaired fans by offering audio description at live sporting events around Central Florida. This means having a live describer at the event speaking to fans through a listening device to fill them in on what’s happening on the field, court, or ice. But it also would include pregame festivities, halftime performances, fan contests, and other visual-oriented activities not typically described by traditional broadcasters.

As a lifelong sports fan who happens to be visually impaired, I reached out to the ADI team last year shortly after moving to the Orlando area. I inquired if the team had any experience or interest in providing audio description for live sporting events. They said “not yet, but we’re very interested in exploring the possibility!”

“Attending live sporting events is part of the joy of life for many people because it’s FUN to be IN the stadium or arena, cheering with the crowd, booing a bad call, enjoying a beer and a hot dog with your buddies,” said Stasha Boyd, Founder and President of ADI. “Whether it’s sports or arts or anything else where people come together for a shared experience with their community, ADI is committed to making sure it’s as accessible – and enjoyable – to a person who uses a white cane as it is to a person who uses a wheelchair.”

Boyd believes Central Florida is a perfect region to offer audio description for live sports. She points to countless local teams, including the Orlando Magic, Orlando City SC, Orlando Pride, Orlando Solar Bears, and the University of Central Florida and Rollins College athletic teams. There are also many high-profile sporting events that come through the area, such as the NFL Pro Bowl, the Arnold Palmer Invitational PGA tournament, as well as college bowl games and college basketball tournaments. Plus, Orlando is the largest travel and tourism destination in America, attracting 75.3 million visitors in 2024.

“The ability to make a huge impact on accessibility to our rich tapestry of sports is unique in Central Florida, not only for our local friends, family, and neighbors who are blind or have low vision, but also for those who visit us every year,” she said.

“Sports have been a piece of the fabric of my soul,” said Brian Smith, Director of Partner Development for ADI who is working closely with Boyd on this effort. “That fabric was torn in 2007 when I lost most of my vision to the side effects of diabetes. I still follow my teams, still attend games, still cheer and boo, but not in the way I once did.”

As he helps bridge the gap between local sports teams and the blind and visually impaired community, Smith is confident audio description can have a major impact on visually impaired fans like himself.

“Audio description will make it possible to be involved with a game rather than a consumer at a game. It will allow me to go to a game without feeling like a burden to those I am with by always needing an update or explanation,” he said.

Thanks to my job at Full Sail University, I was very aware of our Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting. I thought a good next step would be to reach out to program director Gus Ramsey and some of the sportscasting faculty (with a special shoutout to Jeff Radcliffe and Mac MacDonald) to see if I could connect them to ADI. We had our first meeting in the late summer of 2024 and have continued our conversations with them. They have connected us to several current sportscasting students and alumni, and we are extremely grateful for their support.

This past April, ADI collaborated with Alan March Sports, a UK-based company that provides audio description for sporting events around Europe. Alan March, who runs the company, spent a full day at LighthouseWorks facilitating a training program on audio description for live sports with five prospective describers, including ADI’s own John Palmer, as well as four current sportscasting students and alumni from Full Sail. During the training, the participants had to watch and listen to clips from a variety of sports, including soccer, American football, baseball, basketball, swimming, equestrian, and even gymnastics.

“Alan first showed us some examples of bad description where the announcers would get so excited and yell and scream that you couldn’t understand what they were saying,” Palmer said. “You want to show some excitement, but you also have to stay on top of what’s happening.”

At times, four participants would close their eyes, and then the fifth person would look at a photo and describe it out loud. Then the other four opened their eyes and gave feedback on whether the picture being described is what they had envisioned in their mind.

“You have to be with the ball all the time,” Palmer explained. “You can’t stop and go into along description about something or do a lot of extraneous things. You have to ask yourself, ‘Am I making my person’s head move like they’re looking to watch the ball?’ You also have to mention the score as much as possible.”

Palmer – who has worn a wide range of professional hats in the arts and entertainment space that include roles as a stage manager, music director, and performer – has described over 40 theatrical shows for ADI. He knows there’s a big difference between providing audio description for theater and sporting events.

“With a live theatrical event, I know the outcome and how they’re going to get there. With sports, there is obviously no telling about what’s going to happen.”

He said knowing the rules of each sport inside and out is also crucial.

Karlos Mancilla, a 2024 Full Sail sportscasting alum, also participated in the multisport AD training. He said the instruction stressed the importance of explaining where exactly the ball is all the time.

“Fans tend to follow the ball with their heads, not their eyes. After the game, you want the blind or visually impaired fan to be able to talk about the game just as well as their friends who saw the game with their own eyes,” Mancilla explained.

The participants also listened to several broadcasts of soccer matches from the past 30 years to observe how much description – or lack thereof – those broadcasts contained.

“We closed our eyes to put us in the shoes of a blind or visually impaired fan, and it showed how unsuitable a traditional broadcast can be, especially with TV,” Mancilla added.

Compared to traditional play-by-play, he said there is less emphasis on storytelling in audio description to ensure fans are hearing the most real-time visual information possible about an event rather than hearing about the background of a coach or player. However, he said he thinks a sport like baseball could still lend itself to a bit more storytelling because of the frequent breaks in the action.

Mancilla has lots of experience doing play-by-play for college athletics. He has called baseball, basketball, and softball games for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, as well as baseball, softball, basketball, and soccer for Rollins College. As someone with cerebral palsy, he explained how this condition drew him to broadcasting.

“I realized being an athlete was a far-fetched ambition, so I’ve tried to figure out ways I could be involved in sports in some way,” Mancilla said. “Broadcasting was very appealing because I’ve always enjoyed hearing people tell stories. It’s been a very rewarding path in my career thus far.”

He said he’s eager to make a positive impact on the disability community considering his own life experiences.

“People with disabilities are often out of sight and out of mind. I’ve been to many places in my life as someone with a disability, and my needs aren’t able to be met in many cases. If I have the opportunity to help bridge that gap or fix needs that aren’t being met, I would be more than happy to do that.”

ADI has also received some guidance from MindsEye, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that is only one of a few providers of audio description for live sports in the U.S.

In addition to all of these connections, the ADI team has already met with a few local sports organizations to propose the idea of live audio description at their games. They’ve been intrigued by what they’ve heard, and ADI is eager to move forward with providing this service for fans in the very near future.

At the end of the day, Boyd is confident ADI can make a difference in ensuring sporting events are accessible both locally and nationally.

“As Americans and sports fans, we know the importance of sports in our lives, the memories it makes, and the communities it builds,” she said. “This includes blind and visually impaired fans. Central Florida is uniquely positioned to show the rest of the nation what is possible when commitment and capability come together.”

NOTE: Greg Lindberg is an ambassador for the Audio Description Initiative (ADI).

When I was a junior at Palm Harbor University High School, I had a physics teacher named Dr. Wilson. He was a bit of a quirky gentleman (but aren’t all high school physics teachers?), and it was something he said that really stuck with me. The funny thing is that it had nothing to do with physics at all – or certainly was not part of the curriculum but, now that I think about it, could be tied to physics in some way.

One day, somebody sneezed in our class. It must have been a loud one that caught everyone’s attention in the middle of a lecture. Dr. Wilson and some of the students were quick to “bless” the sneezer, but that wasn’t the end of the acknowledgement as it normally would be. Instead, Dr. Wilson spent a minute or two talking about sneezes. He talked about how differently some people sneeze, from a very soft-sounding sneeze that might be confused for a cough to a very violent sneeze that is practically alarming to those around the culprit and could literally cause an injury to one’s neck.

This one quick discussion got me thinking about a few things. Obviously, males and females seem to have noticeably different sneezes. The same can be said about younger kids compared to older individuals. Some people only sneeze once or twice during an “attack,” while others can keep the “sneezin’ mo-jo” going for more than just a split second.

I sometimes wonder how someone’s sneezes and personality stack up. Are “violent” sneezers who put their whole body into this natural event generally louder, more boisterous individuals? Are those who hardly make a peep typically soft spoken and fall into the category of introverts? Based on my observations, it doesn’t seem like you can draw a perfect line between a person’s sneeze and their overall characteristics. I’ve met some people who constantly use an “outside voice” whose sneezes are barely detectable. On the flipside, I know of those whose voices can barely be heard but can let loose with the best of them when sneezing.

This is why in my view, sneezes are like snowflakes. Each human being has a slightly different sneeze. Whether it’s a loud “ahh-choo” or a modest squeak, it is fascinating how this human reaction to various conditions can vary so much.

So, the next time you hear someone sneeze, do a quick mental evaluation to see if you expected or were surprised by the sound they made. There’s a good chance you’ll be surprised.

Since the voting results of Major League Baseball’s Cy Young Award winners were released today, it’s only fitting to write a blog post about the power of a strikeout in baseball.

A strikeout is like no other out in America’s favorite pastime. When a pitcher throws a sizzling 99-mph fastball or a nasty change-up that totally fools a hitter, it shows pure dominance of the pitcher over teh hitter. In many cases, a hitter will make a face, drop his bat, or even bark at the umpire about the location of the pitch. It’s also a great feeling for a pitcher to strike out a batter. Sending a batter back to the dugout via a strikeout is so much different than doing so any other way. Think about it. Is a slow grounder to the shortshop who then tosses to the first baseman really that upsetting? Is a pop fly into centerfield that disappointing for a hitter? The answer is probably not. But when it comes to being “caught looking” or swinging through a pitch and missing it, there is an added feeling of being on the short end of the stick – a feeling of losing the one-on-one matchup with the guy on the mound. It’s almost like a boxing match and getting knocked to the ground.

Another thing that shows the power of a strikeout is how much this statistic means to writers who vote for the best pitcher in each league. The Rays’ David Price won the Cy Young for the 2012 season in the American League. Price collected 205 strikeouts. Although this didn’t lead the league, it was a feat accomplished in just 211 innings, meaning he almost struck out one batter each inning in which he pitched. In the NL, R.A Dickey of the Mets took home the award and whiffed 230 batters in 233 innings. This “K” total was enough to lead his league, and many of these punch-outs came via his tricky knuckleball pitch.

The bottom line is that no hitter in baseball wants to step up to the plate and strike out. Hitters want to hit a home run, get on base, or at least get walked. The last thing they want to do is chase a nasty breaking ball or a dazzling fastball and have to face their teammates on the bench. I’ve never been in the cleats of a major leaguer, but from what I have observed, it’s got to be like a punch to the gut. The best way to get over this feeling is probably to get up to bat again and make up for it.

One of the most fascinating social experiences is something many of us do every single day – riding in an elevator. I recently sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. This ship contains several elevators, and you see just about everything when you ride on them.

When someone enters an elevator, they look to see who else is on it. They then make their way to an open space if there are others on-board. If the elevator is almost full, everyone on-board must move to make room for the newcomer. If there is not enough room, riders must wait for the next available elevator to arrive.

An interesting part of riding an elevator is that most people remain quiet while on-board. People who are having a conversation while waiting for one tend to put those discussions on-hold when they get on an elevator with strangers. But they’ll start yakking away once they reach their desired floor and make their way out of the elevator. Riders also tend to stand so that they are facing the elevator doors. This is why eye contact is quite uncommon among riders who don’t know each other.

Some people seem to consider an elevator to be just like their home. They leave trash on it, spill crumbs on it while grabbing a quick snack during a ride, and they even leave wine glasses on-board. I saw one on my cruise. I can’t imagine what these individuals’ homes look like if they feel the need to litter on an elevator. You never see trash cans on them, but people must think they are giant waste baskets that are also used – secondarily – to transport people from one floor to another.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fear that some people have of getting stuck in an elevator. I’ve never really had this fear myself, but after seeing the video from a few years ago of a New York man who was trapped in elevator for 41 hours, it definitely makes me wonder how awful it must be to be enclosed in a bubble for any unreasonable amount of time. My fingers are crossed that this won’t ever happen (and that this blog post won’t jinx me).

You might not think much of a 30- or 45-second ride in an elevator, but think about these things the next time you press the “up” button to go to your office or apartment. There is nothing like an elevator, and it’s funny how these transporting systems change the behavior of every person who walks through those heavy doors for a vertical trip.

A few years ago, I wrote an article for the USF St. Petersburg student newspaper (“The Crow’s Nest”) about how women’s sports deserve more respect and coverage than they currently receive.

After recently watching the USF Bulls women’s softball team compete in the College World Series, I thought it only made sense to expound on this a bit. I had never watched more than a few seconds of a softball game on TV until watching the Bulls play Hofstra in their first of three Super Regional games. You have to give these girls a ton of credit for how they compete. Sure, it’s “slow-pitch” softball. Sure, they aren’t tackling each other like football players do. Sure, they aren’t ramming each other into walls like NHL players do. But you cannot deny that these young ladies are putting forth tremendous effort in each and every game in which tye compete.

I remember how the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team strung dozens of victories together and set a record for consecutive wins over the course of two seasons. From what I recall, women’s college basketball got the most press out of this. Does it really take a women’s team to set unprecedented records for female sports to get any decent coverage at all? Does a women’s college basketball game mean nothing, while a men’s college basketball game might get a great timeslot on a major broadcast network?

ESPN recently promoted what is apparently a new website – ESPNW.com – during one of the softball game broadcasts I saw. It’s great to see a website that is entirely devoted to covering women’s sports. With the hundreds of TV channels out there on digital calbe these days, I would love to see just one channel that dedicates all of its programming to women’s sports, much like WE (Women’s Entertainment) airs shows geared toward a female audience. Unfortunately, I doubt that will ever happen any time soon. There is still a great deal of gender bias when it comes to media coverage. Until that changes, the status quo will remain in our society.

A few months ago, I wrote on this blog about how awful the 2011 college football season treated the Sunshine State. The regular powers like Florida, Florida State and Miami barely had a heartbeat. Even up-and-comers like USF, UCF and FAU failed in their efforts to beautify the football landscape in the state.